Andorra now a 100 per cent fibre-optic country
The replacement of traditional telephony with fibre-optic telephone lines is a new step towards the digitalisation of telecommunications in Andorra. The major milestones of the process included the installation of fibre-optic broadband throughout the territory, the shut-down of ADSL and it now culminates in the replacement of telephone services based on copper wire.
On 31 December, as announced, the work was completed. Andorra Telecom's Director of Customer Relations, Josep Vilana, was very pleased this Monday with the response of customers to this technological change. There are currently around 38,000 telephone lines that operate through fibre optics.
Vilana took stock of the final results of the migration. Only 33 business customers and 175 residential customers had not cancelled their copper telephone lines, although they have been contacted repeatedly by Andorra Telecom informing them of the migration. These 208 customers represent a decrease of 61.5 per cent compared with 15 December, when the total number of outstanding customers stood at 514.
The Director of Customer Relations considers that, given the overall number of users, this is a very low figure and adds that previous experience in the parishes of Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany, where the disconnection took place on 30 June, has shown that these lines were hardly used and the shut-down will have little impact.
In this regard, he pointed out that, in many cases, they are second home customers or companies that, despite having fibre-optics, still maintain some services such as faxes on copper lines. There are also users who instead of cancelling the service have preferred the company itself to shut it down.
In any case, Andorra Telecom will not disconnect the lines until 9 January so as not to leave any customers without service during the holidays. Vilana recalled that this gives a small extra margin to those who have not processed the change, while contextualising it in very specific cases.
The copper line shut-down was implemented in two phases. The first, which ended on 30 June, occurred in the parishes of Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany, while the second, affecting the rest of the territory, ended on 31 December.
